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Crash claims 1

A 21-year-old rural Wapakoneta man was killed in a single-vehicle crash Saturday night on a rural Auglaize County road.
Garret D. Rhodes, 21, 09560 County Road 33A, was driving a 1997 Chevy Camaro east on County Road 33A when he drove the vehicle off the right side of County Road 33Å, east of Bay Road, hitting two utility poles. Alcohol may have been a contributing factor in the crash as may have speed.
The vehicle sustained severe, disabling damage, according to a trooper’s report from the Wapakoneta Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Wapakoneta Post Commander Lt. John Carrico told the Wapakoneta Daily News this morning that preliminary indications show that Rhodes was driving extremely fast at the time of the crash.
“Damage indicates that he was driving at a very high rate of speed,” Carrico said. “Our indication was that he had been at a wedding reception and had been dropped off (before getting in his vehicle and driving).”
Rhodes died at the scene and was pronounced dead by Auglaize County Coroner’s Investigator Steve Stienecker.
He was transported from the scene by Bayliff and Eley Funeral Home, in Wapakoneta.
Rhodes was not wearing a properly adjusted seatbelt.
Carrico said the crash remains under investigation.
An incomplete obituary for Rhodes can be seen on Page 3A of today’s Wapakoneta Daily News. The Miller-Long & Folk Funeral Home in St. Marys is handling funeral arrangements.
Rhodes is the third traffic fatality in Auglaize County in 2011.